Fear the Deere

[mezz]

It looks like he did a hard tail landing to cause that bend in the slide rail. I had a friend that did that to his '98 EXT 580 EFI slide rails. He was hitting a small pile of snow in a parking area and launched about 8-10' straight up and landed on the tail of the suspension on the hard plowed ground after the third hit it resulted in bending both slide rails. Sled rocked like a rocking chair afterward, dumb move. I am amazed that both didn't get bent on that Deere.

 

[skiroule]

Yeah, I’m thinking he corkscrewed on one or more jumps and landed with all the weight on a single rail tip. These sleds are tail heavy to begin with and when you add rider weight that’s a lot of force.

Even after repairing the suspension, I became increasingly suspicious that the entire chassis was also tweaked. The measurements still suggested a twist from front to back. Because of this, I threw out some feelers for a replacement chassis in the spring of 2022. A fellow in Cameron WI said he had a Cyclone chassis and Liquifire chassis that he would let me have for free.

From Baudette MN to Cameron WI is roughly a 650 mile round trip but I added some time/distance by stopping in Duluth to pick up the parts that eventually became the basis for the Mutt.

Anyone that has ever picked up things from vintage sled guys knows you don’t just blow in, get your stuff and get moving. Figure on at least an hour of conversation and looking at what else they have because they usually have a lot of cool stuff.

So, it ended up being about a 15+ hour day and when I got home both the truck and I were out of gas but when I went out the next morning and looked at the haul, it was worth the effort.

Some of you may have seen a similar photo in the Mutt thread but I never explained how or why I came to have a couple of Deere carcasses in the load. At the time, I was trying to decide which project to do next and eventually decided on the Mutt.

 

[skiroule]

Sorry that the project has been a little quiet. I had planned to hit it hard lastweekend but the Cub Cadet threw a wrench in those plans, which caused me to throw a lot of wrenches.


A transmission spring that probably cost 4 cents to make brought the whole system to its knees.


Of course, you can’t just buy the spring, you have to buy the whole assembly containing the 4-cent spring for $163. Don’t really want to try to cobble up a replacement spring because the piston assemblies look like they are the heart of the hydrostatic drive and I’m sure the spring is precisely calibrated for the assembly.

I figured I should at least add a little background on the initial state of the replacement chassis. In spite of its size, the Cyclone chassis is a very lightweight chassis. The tunnel section is heavier gauge aluminum and is quite strong but because the pan has no structural function, it is beer-can thin. It’s a rare day that you find one without dents, cracks, and holes.


Another common chassis issue is the rear tunnel plate that gets chewed up by the track. It’s hard to believe a rider could get enough travel out that suspension to cause the track to make contact but it happens.

Since these are common issues, it’s unlikely I could have found a better one.